He Who Protects
by Ladidumm
Summary: It's always been Darui's job to protect C, and he thinks he failed when fighting Sasuke. C disagrees.


**I do not own Naruto. This is a oneshot. I chose the name C and not Shee or Shii because it was the one I found used the most. I did not post it under C because no one looks there. **

**This takes place right before Darui talks to the Raikage and the whole right arm thing happens. A note; C is also counted as one of the Raikage's right arms. So he is not weak. **

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><p>Darui was having a crisis. He'd failed. C had trusted him and he'd failed. Darui had one job in the world; he was one of his boss' right arms. His boss was a strong man however, and he didn't really need protection. Darui gave it anyway. But Darui had one more job. Neither his boss nor Darui was especially good at anything involving fine chakra control, and so C was often tasked with doing all of that. Darui knew C was not helpless, and hated to be perceived as such. It had been enough to see him grit his teeth in private over a Sharingan that makes all his genjutsu useless. C was not a genius, and he knew it, but he worked at it, worked so hard Darui wanted to work hard just because he felt he should.<p>

When C had been found out as a sensor type he had worked at it until he collapsed, developed fine chakra control and became a medic and a genjutsu type. He had studied enemy techniques until he could say them in his sleep and war tactics until even the Raikage looked to him for advice. He had worked at his taijutsu until he became proficient without it. He had refused to be helpless. As one of the many orphans from the war, he refused to let anyone he cared about die and not do anything about it. It had also fostered within him a slight hatred of Konoha, but that was beside the point.

The point was that C hated feeling helpless and never left his back open. Unless Darui was there to guard it. That was all there was to it. C, as a chakra control specialist, often came across situations when he was forced to leave himself open, and he would usually not do so and wait to find a time for it. The only two people he trusted were Darui and the Raikage. And how had they answered that trust? How had Darui answered that trust?

He sees a body falling to the floor, sees eyes wide open in shock and the Uchiha bounding away covering an eye in pain. Tsukiyomi. The nightmare realm that had put the Copycat Ninja in a coma for three days and he had been using the Sharingan at the time and C was helpless helpless helpless and Darui had been supposed to protect him and he hadn't and now if the Uchiha had felt like it he could have stabbed C on the ground and killed him and there couldn't have been anything he could have done and this was all his fault and he couldn't even go and help him up and make sure he was breathing because the kid was fighting him. He needed to help him. He needed to. He remembered C's words a few days after Killer Bee was captured.

**Flashback**

"_Hey, C," Darui said, leaning back onto his elbows and interrupting his partner's lecture on the Sharingan, "this is really dull. Why do I need to learn this? You've got it down." C had given him his 'annoyed look' and Darui had flinched mentally. That look was scary. Genjutsu specialists; there was something about their eyes. They always seemed to contrast with the rest of them. C, with his pale skin and light blond hair, had ridiculously black eyes that just didn't fit. Those eyes were glimmering with annoyance at the moment._

"_Because," he said as if explaining some fundamentally simple thing, "I might not be around." Darui had choked on air. After a few minutes of gasping and a quick medical once-over from a concerned C, he had managed to ask a question._

"_What's that even mean?" he said, peering into his partner's black eyes in order to find some semblance of the normal confident-in-the-skills-he-had-worked-so-hard-to-learn C, genuinely freaking out internally._

"_It means that although I am an expert at taijutsu, there are people better than me and my ninjutsu is low jounin level, and it means that I will be helpless if someone disable my genjutsu," C explained matter-of-factly, "basically, from what I can gather they have some monsters on their team, enough to take down Killer Bee-sama, and in all honesty my taijutsu probably won't compare to their kenjutsu. And the Sharingan can counter most genjutsu if trained enough, and if he's got it to Mangekyou I stand no chance. If we come into contact with the Uchiha and his team, I might get put out of commission, most likely killed. You need to be able to protect Raikage-sama, and so you need to know this, OK?" Darui had stared for a long moment._

"_No!" he had managed, "Not OK! Definitely not OK! So far from OK! Look, C, you trust me, right? It's why you're not afraid to go into deep sensor-mode around me, right?" C nodded, "Then trust I'll protect you. While you have valid points, you are strong C, and I need you. Boss needs you. We need your knowledge and taijutsu and genjutsu and medical skills and sensor skills. So trust I'll protect you, and stop lecturing me about the Sharingan, got it?" C had stared, sighed, and nodded._

"_Really, you're hopeless," he had muttered, turning away, but Darui had seen the smile cross his face._

**Flashback Ends**

And he had failed. Right now, C was being looked over, 'just in case', because Tsukiyomi was a dangerous technique and his boss was being fitted for a prosthetic arm. And Darui was fine. Darui wasn't supposed to be fine, he was the shield that got scratched and nicked and scratched again until there was nothing left. Darui had always known he would die protecting his boss and C, but now he had failed both of them.

"Oi, Darui, what's wrong?" C's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see the blond shinobi walking over, looking a bit pale but otherwise fine. Darui was worried anyway though. The problem with C was that he was naturally very pale, and so when he got even paler he looked really sickly. "You have this vaguely upset look on your face."

"Sorry," Darui said, glancing off to the side and rubbing the back of his head. This stopped when C poked him.

"Don't apologize, idiot," he told Darui, "What is with you and apologies? And if you apologize for apologizing, I'm leaving. Now what's wrong?" Darui sighed and looked away again.

"I'm supposed to protect you," he said at last, "That's my job. I protect you and the Boss and you trust me because of it. That's how it works. But I managed to fail both of those tasks. I betrayed your trust and the boss' trust and I don't know what to do. I inherited the Third Raikage's techniques, for what? So I could get caught up fighting some brat with a broken sword while you and boss were hurt?" he looked back at C, staring into black eyes that stood out all the more against his sickly pale skin.

"No," C said, shaking his head, "That 'brat with a broken sword' was the younger brother of Mangetsu. He and his brother have been called the Second Coming of the Demon. They're both geniuses. And, well, you know Raikage-sama. He wanted to fight that fight, and so he did. If anyone was basically useless there, it was me. If you hadn't intervened against that 'brat with a big sword' I wouldn't have been able to move fast enough. As things are, I should have noticed the Uchiha. And that sensor I was looking for? We've learned from Konoha that she has the ability to completely hide her presence. She's more talented than I am, and if I'd realized that and stopped looking for her, things would have gone better. You did your job, and if you still want to think you could have done a better job, than next time we fight together, do it." He stopped, and gave Darui one of his rare smiles. He only ever seemed to get them with Darui nowadays. Even the boss had trouble with it. C was not a happy person by nature. "Broodings not your style, Darui. A laid back smile fits you best."

C grinned wider at Darui, who smiled in return. "There, that's better. Now go talk to Raikage-sama if you're still worried, OK? I need to run and look over the war plans. Our shinobi have this tendency to just charge in if they're not told exactly what to do. But hey, better that than Konoha with their tendency to just ignore battle plans, eh? I'm off."

Darui turned and watched his partner walk away, chuckling lightly over the pale man's insistence to throw the occasional light-hearted jab Konoha's way. Some grudges never quite die. C was right. He should stop brooding. Now he should go and talk to the boss. He should definitely apologize.

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><p><strong>This was not intended as slash, but if you think it is, go ahead. To each his own. I just don't write slash unless it is a request.<strong>

****Now then, I know a lot of people think C is weak. I disagree strongly. If you want to know why, I will tell you. Just send me a review or PM asking. If you don't want to know why and just feel like yelling at me, I won't respond. Every single ability I give him has a reason behind it. ****

**Please give me your opinion. I don't actually mind flames, but I won't respond. And my feelings may be hurt.**


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